Somatosensory evoked potentials in pure sensory stroke and related conditions.

Somatosensory evoked potentials were reviewed for their correlation with CT scan and clinical features of ischemic "pure sensory stroke" and "pure sensorimotor stroke". Somatosensory evoked potentials were normal in all 11 cases of pure sensory stroke, and CT was normal in ten. The N2-P2 components of the somatosensory evoked potentials were abnormal in all 4 cases of pure sensorimotor stroke, and all had low density CT lesions in the lateral thalamus and/or posterior limb of the internal capsule. It is concluded that somatosensory evoked potentials and CT scans are routinely abnormal in pure sensorimotor stroke, but they are consistently normal in pure sensory stroke, and should not be interpreted as evidence against a clinical diagnosis of pure sensory stroke.